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We ended our golf trip at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge to take part in the 3 day spring swing clinic with two CPGA professionals.

Welcome to Jasper Park Lodge!

We were a group of twelve students ranging from beginners to club members. In addition to sitting down together for breakfast and lunch (the food at the lodge was fantastic), we were lucky to play with 3 different couples during the three days and had a great time.

Day 1 – Putting and Chipping

Our instructor had a lot of putting drills and aids on the putting green for us to give a shot at. Drills/aids include:

A mirror to check your eye line is directly over the ball

A block of 2×4 down the putting line to guide the putter head

A raised alignment rod to rest the putter shaft on, to again go down the line (this felt more natural to me than the 2×4

4 tees set up in a block about 30 feet away as a lag drill

Alignment rods towards the hole to work on the stroke

I spent most of my time in the last station, putting between the alignment rods. I got the chance to ask my instructor about how he fights the difference in the putting line from when you stand directly behind the ball and when you get into your putting stance. I use a line on my ball and on my bad putting days, I know I’m fighting with my brain because the aim appears to be off when your perspective is from the side and above the ball instead of from behind. He gave me a great tip to stand behind the ball and visualize the full putt rolling in first and trust that read before even setting up to the ball.

For chipping, we were taught the putting stroke chip with various clubs. To be honest, I never practice ever with chipping with anything trusty 54* wedge- and very occasionally my 58* for this short-sided situations. So here, I got a chance to use my A and P wedge and wow, does it ever roll out fast. I’d need a lot more practice to figure out their roll- for now, I’m still chipping everything mostly with my sand wedge. I tend to miss all my chips left and I learned that when I close my stance on setup, I also unconsciously close my shoulder line as well. This little tip to re-align my shoulder square had me chipping alot closer to target immediately!

Day 2

Today was pitching and sand shots. Probably the least practised element of my game. My not-so-graceful pitching technique is to basically grip down as appropriate and take a full swing at the ball. This leads to general inconsistencies- pulls, pushes and lots of fat! I can’t tell you how many times I think back on my round about the thrown away shots from under 100y out.

Like chipping, we were taught to take a longer club and take a more controlled 9-9 swing with good tempo. No rushing the shot. For example, we were on firm ground hitting into a green with the flag at 50y away. Usually, for me, this is some awkward grip-down-to-the-metal-full-swing lob wedge. Instead, I found a soft controlled sand wedge flew the ball much more in the right line and would be at least be on the green even if the distance was a tad short or long. I think I’ll try to incorporate this new idea into my rounds.

For bunkers, we did the usual “hit the lines and get the sand on to the green” drill. I had a horrible season from the bunkers last year and made a conscious decision spend time in the practice bunker early this season. These days, we are being taught to align square to the target and lower the handle to add loft instead of the old-school way of opening up your stance and cutting across the ball. I still open my stance a touch to help with stable legs. I seem to be able to get out of bunkers with much more confidence these days. My thoughts are to basically hit a flop shot (open face, club face finishing facing me and high) but make sure to focus on splashing a particular grain of sand 2 or 3 inches behind the ball onto the green. I used to think “pick” the grain of sand out but that had me thinning the ball. The “thump and splash” thought works much better.

Day 3

Finally, we worked on irons and drivers. I’ve been starting to have problems hitting irons and I’ve finally stopped hooking my drives this season. Unfortunately, I’m starting to occasionally fade my irons and heavily slicing my drives. During the session, the instructor told me that my tempo is too quick- I end up using my hands and arms instead of my body on the bad shots compared to turning through properly with the body on the good shots. He gave me very good advice- to work on a smooth tempo and get consistency in the shot first before feeling comfortable and adding speed. It made a lot of sense to me so for the last week, I’ve been on the range trying to work on tempo.

My Game

Fortunately, my hard work in fighting my hook has been won. I even get the occasional dead straight balls. Unfortunately, I’m now also fighting a very obvious fade and slice with shorter distances and having to readjust my club selections. It’s crazy to be fighting a hook for two seasons, be always aiming right and counting on the ball swinging back left, and then finally not having the club stuck behind me but now facing a slice.

I remember when I used to fight a slice and yearned for a draw. Then I figured out how to draw but then snap hooked started happened and I wished like crazy to go back to a fade/slice. Um, guess what? I made it here and I don’t like it! I’m going to work on strengthening my grip a touch again and see if I can at least keep the ball in play again!

Two hours of Instruction Per Day (six hours total) with Canadian PGA Golf Professionals

One Round of Golf Per Day (Three Rounds Total)

Golf Cart and Club Rental

Club Storage

Food & Beverage Gratuities

I have to say the swing clinic was just perfect. I didn’t want to go into some swing de-construction and re-construction right now and the pros tried really hard to give every single student one or two important take-aways, customized towards their own swings. For me, it was all about tempo and not rushing my transition. For my wife, she learned that she sometimes “quit” on her 3w and need to follow through fully like her driver. The 2 instructors made us feel really comfortable and the other students were great company. The rooms were a little warm with AC but it was a comfortable quiet place to sleep. We even had some wildlife visit us in our back yard-

The included food was in abundance and very good.

Finally, the JPL golf course is a great golf course. The course is beautiful, surrounded by a mountain view every direction you look, and is fun and challenging to play. Both my wife and I had a great weekend and thought it was the perfect end to our golf trip.

The highlight of my week was accidentally playing from the tips my first round(the silver tee box really looked like whites!) on number 13- I think it played to 608 instead of 540 from the whites. I looked at my GPS and I still had 340 left! I was thinking to myself “wow, this is quite the long par 5, even after a good drive with a tail wind”. Took 3 hybrid to 150 left to a blind green. Since this was our first round, we had no idea if my approach was okay or not. It made it to the edge of the green and 2 putt out for the longest par I’ve made so far. In later rounds, I discovered paring this hole was a pretty good score for me, even if playing from much closer tee boxes.

Look for more JPL pictures in a future post!

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We played 54 holes over Christmas and Boxing Day at Indian Wells and had an incredible time soaking in everything Golf at both courses. We managed to finish the first round quickly (3’45”), enjoyed a nice lunch at the Vue restaurant, and then snagged the last time at noon on Christmas Day. We came back the next day to spend the morning at their grass driving range, and I got a quick lesson from my buddy on sand escapes in their practice bunkers before heading out for another 18.

Indian Wells is a definite “must play” if you visit Palm Springs- it’s definitely on my list to re-visit next time we go back!

My favorite photo from our trip- No 15 at the Palyers Course. We are about 150 yards out- you can just spot the red flag right of center.

My buddy was oh-so-close to an eagle from 130 out on the same hole no. 15 hole (the next day)! It actually hit the pin on the hop and stopped right there. #NoStressBirdie

Play through a sandstorm at the Players Course for our 2nd afternoon round. (Keep right! The fairway tilts towards the water!)

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Alot of serious players seem to dislike scramble tournaments. Usually, it means golfing with company co-workers and probably be stuck behind a group of beginners who have only plays once or twice at year. It can be an excruciating 5 hours of dealing with drunk golfers driving their cart go all over the golf course, and ducking everything “Fore!” is yelled, which you’ll hear on every hole.

However, I try to join at least one every season with my regular playing partners. As a bogey golfer who regular sees 80s and 90s on the scorecard, scrambles really shows me the difference of great golf versus my version of crunchy golf.